Cirrus secures production certification for Vision Jet

TIN news: Cirrus Aircraft has secured US production certification for its SF50 Vision Jet, allowing the airframer to produce, test fly and issue airworthiness certification for each of the single-engined aircraft that rolls off its final assembly line in Duluth, Minnesota.

The approval will also enable Cirrus to ramp-up output of the six-seat personal jet to one per week by the third quarter.

The Vision Jet secured US type certification in October 2016 after a 10-year development effort, and entered service in December.

Five units have been delivered to date from an order backlog of more than 600 aircraft, says the CAIGA-owned company, which also manufactures the SR-family of high-speed piston singles.

Up to 50 Vision Jet deliveries are planned for 2017, rising to between 75 and 125 units in 2018, confirms Matt Bergwall, product line manager for the $2 million aircraft.

He says there are 26 Vision Jets in various stages of manufacture at Cirrus’s composite parts and final assembly facilities in Grand Forks, North Dakota and Duluth respectively.

The firm recently broke ground on a Vision Jet training facility at its Knoxville, Tennessee campus, which is scheduled to open in early 2018. The city is also home to a Cirrus service centre and a training and delivery operation for the SR-series.

Work is is scheduled to begin at the site later this year on a dedicated customer delivery hangar for the Vision Jet, says Bergwall.

The Williams International FJ33-5A-powered aircraft is the only single-engined jet to have secured Part 23-certification. It is equipped with a Cirrus Perspective Touch flightdeck – based on the Garmin G3000 avionics suite – and an emergency parachute system. The Vision Jet has a maximum take-off weight of 2,730kg (6,000lb), a range of around 1,000nm (1,850km), and a stall speed of 67kt (124km/h).